Kaiser in its various corporate guises produced vehicles for 22 years – cars just the first seven of them. Thanks to their purchase of Willys-Overland in 1953, however, they made Jeeps until the very end. This is one of those final-year Jeeps, a yellow Jeepster Commando that rolled before an auctioneer at the 2011 Mecum Spring Classic here in Indianapolis.

As the front window proclaims, this one is powered by a Dauntless V6, which Kaiser was making from tooling they bought from Buick. This one looks rather silly in its whitewall all-season tires.

Unlike most of the cars you see at the Mecum auction, this one wasn’t restored to within an inch of its life. Instead, it was restored to only within maybe five or six inches of its life, with plenty of little detail problems like the scratches, bubbles, and rust spots you see in this photo. Or could this one be a survivor?

For a he-man’s Jeepster Commando, see this CC Capsule from a few months ago.

I had test-driven two of these, at different times. First time, I could have gotten it for a song; but I was broke and while I could have paid the purchase price, the potential repairs scared me off.

Second time I was better off; but the one I tested had been field-engineered to where it seemed, again, a real danger. That one was an AMC Commando, with the V8…thirsty yet weak.

But i liked the man/machine feel of both; the narrow cockpit. The 1973 had been retrofitted with a CJ front clip; the fenders had been made to fit with tin snips. Liked looking out over that Jeep hood.

Alas…it was not to be. Today, of course, these things are scarcely practical as a DD; and even now I’m not in position to afford a hobby car.

I remember when my old man got his Wagoneer…while he was working the deal (or getting worked, I don’t know) I was sitting in one of these things in the small-small showroom. The showroom held two cars; the Kaiser Jeep line didn’t draw mega-dealers out.

But anyway…I can still remember the metallic green Commando wagon and Jeepster convertible in the showroom. I was eleven years old and not happy that we weren’t buying one of those cooler cars.

A few months later…on the freeway with my old man in his new purchase…we passed up an old car apparently going to a car show. He identified it: a 1927 Franklin. Such an old car, riding around on the freeway! Imagine that…

That Franklin, a demonstrable anti-que car…was as new then as that 1969 Jeepster Commando I was playing in, would be today.

You’ll have to forgive my nostalgia for these tires…even cooler if they are the fairly rare whitewall version of the GT+4’s. Now that they are starting to reproduce the original GT’s in reproduction form I’m hoping they move into the GT+4’s too.

Oh, it may be TITLED a 1969…in those pre-Federal-regs days, a truck or utility vehicle was often titled using the year it was SOLD. VINs were not standardized in those days. Especially not with Jeep; I once had to have my insurance agent inspect one, copy it, PHOTOGRAPH it and phone it in, to get State Farm to accept it as correct.

But it lacks the side marker lights.

And this is telling…because Kaiser Jeep went with one style of side marker lights; nearly square, and in front, mounted in the HOOD. AMC, next year, used their own parts bin…Rebel/Matador/Gremlin rear marker lights, sourced amber for the front. And in front, mounted in the FENDER; with a depression for the lights.

Anytime a vehicle on show or for sale has accolades pasted all over it in vinyl letter, my BS-meter goes off the scale. When I’ve sold collector vehicles, I prefer to let the goods do the talking, and to find a buyer who sincerely knows and appreciates what he’s really getting.

Except that there’s a hole behind them; I think about 5/8″, to allow the wires and socket. Plus the two sheet-metal screws.

Bondo hole-filling on flat steel surfaces, such as the Jeepster’s rear flanks, can be tricky. He could have tack-welded something in there, but why bother? The Jeep side-marker repairs I’ve seen typically involve widening the hole and putting a sealed LED clearance light in there, mounted in a rubber grommet.